‘Tailor’ made pic

'Tinker' bows in London

On the southern bank of the Thames, backed by London’s iconic skyline, a rendezvous took place Tuesday night. The location was on this occasion no secret, as crowds engulfed BFI’s Southbank. The mission, to witness the U.K. bow of Studiocanal’s “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.”

Helmer Tomas Alfredson had strived to compile an elite team of nerds for his MI6 squad, it was revealed, as scriptwriter Peter Straughan reminisced of Alfredson’s initial insight: “Well, the thing is at school, the strong guys, they are the soldiers. The nerds, they are the spies.”

Nerds spied included Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy and John Hurt as they stepped out along the riverside red carpet, under the cover of Waterloo Bridge.

Novel’s scribe, John le Carre, championed the two scriptwriters’ compacting skills, saying, “Sure, I had written the book, but to turn the cow into the Oxo cube was a great deal harder.”

Post pic guests relocated just along the river to Skylon Bar, where they partied over panoramic views until the early hours.